In a terrible month for Pakistan, the country has seen both devastating terrorist attacks as well as the imposition of ‘emergency rule’ by its army chief turned dictator turned president, General Pervez Musharraf (right).

The number of terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil has greatly increased in the past year, in a country deeply divided by violence and hostility between different ethic and ideological factions: Sunni versus Shia, Baluchi separatism, Sindhi nationalism, militant Islamists versus westernized modernists, democrats versus supporters of military rule. All the conflicts appear to be coming to a head at once. One example of this was the Red Mosque siege in July, in which over 100 people were killed and several hundred injured.

On October 18th, exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came back to the country for the first time in more than 8 years. Whilst her supporters gathered in the streets, there was a huge attempt on her life. The bomb blasts, which she narrowly escaped, killed 139 of her supporters. Although no arrests have been made in connection with the attacks, it has been suggested that pro-military factions within Pakistan’s intelligence agencies planned the attack.

Growing threat of violence from extremists in the country led General Pervez Musharaff to impose military rule, with a view to regain full control of the situation. However, the first people who the General clamped down on were not militant Islamists, but rather judges, journalists, lawyers, opposition political activists – all groups who do not pose a physical threat to the country, and if anything are the only hope against religious fanatics.

In light of this, critics charge the president with trying to use the whole situation as an excuse to further his political ambitions, by clamping down on potential opponents in the run up to the upcoming presidential elections, which were planned for January 2008.

Despite all this bad news, I’m sure that many of the readers here will not be feeling particularly sympathetic.

To say that Pakistan is an unpopular country with most Hindus is an understatement. There are many reasons for this, especially considering that the very raison d’être of the country’s existence is “we don’t want to live with those Hindus”, and its creation came about with a large amount of violence, through riots primarily targetting Hindus.

Furthermore India is a holy land for the vast majority of Hindus in the world, including those born outside of India. Many of us also have relatives and interests in India. Pakistan, having launched a relentless proxy war against India for many years, is not going to be on most of our Diwali card lists.

However, the stability (or otherwise) of Pakistan is a matter of paramount importance to the world in general, and India in particular.

Pakistan is an extremely important country in many ways. Although many people don’t realize it due to the fact that Pakistan is always being compared with its larger neighbour, it is actually home to one of the largest populations, and has one of the strongest armed forces. Furthermore, it is one of the only countries which possess nuclear weapons, and therefore a destabilized Pakistan could have widespread implication for the entire world, and India in particular.